As electronic components have become more miniaturized, it has become desirable to also miniaturize the electrical connectors that are used with such components. One aspect of such miniaturization is to reduce the size of the "foot print" required by an electrical connector mounted on a printed circuit board. In other words, it is desirable to reduce the amount of space on the printed circuit board required by the electrical connector.
In addition to reducing the size of the electrical connectors, it is also desirable to reduce the costs and complexity involved with their manufacture. Right angle input/output (I/O) connectors typically have a connector housing with a plurality of terminals mounted therein. The terminals typically include a contact portion at a mating face of the electrical connector and tail portions extending from a mounting or terminating face for soldering to conductive circuit traces on a printed circuit board. In order to maintain the exact position of the tails prior to mounting the electrical connector on a printed circuit board and to generally protect the tails, tail aligners are typically used in connection with such connectors. These tail aligners generally have a plurality of rows of holes through which the tails of the terminals extend. The tail aligner and the connector housing generally include some type of means for securing the tail aligner to the housing. One problem associated with tail aligners is the potential difficultly of inserting all of the terminal tails through the holes in the tail aligner. In other words, as the number of terminals in the connector increases, the potential for misalignment between the terminal tails and the holes in the tail aligner increases, thus potentially making the job of assembling the tail aligners onto the connector housing more difficult.
This invention is directed to solving the problems identified above and providing an improved way of positioning terminals through the use of a tail aligner as well as permitting the miniaturization of the connector assembly.